Securityflags: g

PEM Private Key Block

Match PEM-encoded private key blocks across the common variants (RSA, EC, DSA, OpenSSH, encrypted, PGP).

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Available in

JSSupported

JavaScript / ECMAScript

Browser-native RegExp. Default if you don't pick.

PYSupported

Python (re)

CPython stdlib `re`. Unicode-aware `\w` and `\d` by default.

GOSupported

Go (RE2)

Linear-time matching. No backreferences or lookarounds.

Pattern

regexengine-agnostic
-----BEGIN (?:RSA |EC |DSA |OPENSSH |ENCRYPTED |PGP )?PRIVATE KEY-----[\s\S]+?-----END (?:RSA |EC |DSA |OPENSSH |ENCRYPTED |PGP )?PRIVATE KEY-----   (flags: g)

Raw source: -----BEGIN (?:RSA |EC |DSA |OPENSSH |ENCRYPTED |PGP )?PRIVATE KEY-----[\s\S]+?-----END (?:RSA |EC |DSA |OPENSSH |ENCRYPTED |PGP )?PRIVATE KEY-----

How it works

The optional `(?:RSA |EC |DSA |OPENSSH |ENCRYPTED |PGP )?` group covers the algorithm prefix variants. [\s\S]+? lazily matches the multiline base64 body. The closing `-----END ... PRIVATE KEY-----` mirrors the opening. This is the canonical pattern for secret-scanning tools.

Examples

Input

-----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIEow...\n-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Matches

  • -----BEGIN RSA PRIVATE KEY-----\nMIIEow...\n-----END RSA PRIVATE KEY-----

Input

-----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----\nb3Blbn...\n-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----

Matches

  • -----BEGIN OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----\nb3Blbn...\n-----END OPENSSH PRIVATE KEY-----

Input

-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----

No match

—

Common use cases

  • •Pre-commit secret-scanning for committed private keys
  • •PR diff scanning in CI
  • •Backup file redaction
  • •Incident response for key leaks

Related patterns

PEM Certificate Block

Security

Match PEM-encoded certificate and key blocks, capturing the block type and base64 content.

AWS Access Key ID

Security

Match AWS access key IDs (both long-term AKIA and temporary ASIA prefixes).

SSH Public Key

Security

Match SSH public keys in OpenSSH `authorized_keys` format, including the optional comment field.

Generic API Key

Security

Match generic long alphanumeric tokens (32+ chars) typical of API keys and access tokens.

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